Global Migration Essay

The main pillars of globalization can be termed economic ,political and cultural globalization. Migration has helped to formation of global cities. Global cities has been considered as pillars of political centers, commerce centers, trade centers, finance centers. Rome has been considered as the worlds first global city. Global cities will be centers of innovation and the worlds most popular cities are London and New York. Washington, Melbourne, Paris has been also attracting many migrants.

The article will be covering the issues of global migration, the challenges faced by cities due to global migration and historic, contemporary form of migration. Global Migration Global migration has been normally seen as a process of globalization. Global Migration can be termed the movement of a person individually or as a group from one country to another country (Sheppard, 2002) . Migration can be permanent or temporary. Global migration can also involve crossing many borders to reach the specified destination.

International migration will also involve migration of refugees, displaced persons, persons who has been forced to leave their country due to war or natural disaster and so on. There has been cases when internal migration has become international migration when the countrie has broken up. For example when Soviet Union broke up into small countries, there has been migration between small countries that were termedinternational migration. The most common type of global migration has been the economic migration. It has been reported that one person out of 35 persons has been an international migrant in the twenty first century (Sassen, 2001) .

The approximate number of international migrants in the year 2002 was 175 million (Sassen, 2001) . Migrants has been representing some 2. 9 % in the year 2000 (Sassen, 2001) . The percentage has been on the rise. It has been estimated that if international migrants stay in a place. they will become the worlds fifth largest country. Historic and Contemporary migration flows There has been a historic perception to the process of globalization and a contemporary form of globalization. For example in America ,the earlier forms of global migration in the 1930s has been mainly from European areas.

That had changed in recent years with the global migration coming mainly from Asian and Hispanic region. Historic forces has been responsible for the contemporary flow of migration in form of economic migration and political migration. The first historic migration can be traced back to the slavery era when large number of slaves were transported to different parts of the world (Mcewan, & Henry 2005) . The invention of ships has accelerated the process. That was followed by period of colonization in which there was forced labor and migration to different parts of colonial ruled countries.

There has been large changes in the pattern of landholding ,employment demand and patterns, demographic patterns and location of global cities that has led to the contemporary form of migration. This contemporary form can be traced back to the historic form of migration. There has been development of capitalism from the sixteenth century and that has been the first form of economic migration. There has been people who had traveled through ships in search of job. The diverse nature of contemporary migration is the most important factor . There has been varied culture people who has been migrating to cities.

There has been improved communication channels and travel options that has helped varied cultures to migrate to other parts of the world. Now a day it is a common sight to see a Indian Punjabi Sikh wearing a turban and driving a car in America. The same can be said with American heading a Information Technology company in India. Undocumented immigration has been increasing recently. Feminization of migration as labor migration has been increasing contemporary. More females has been migrating as primary bread winner for the family. The key demand has been for the nursing professional.

There is migration of females as family members or as spouses. Contemporary capitalist globalization has been creating condition for labor transfer. The challenges that global migration poses for cities The primary challenge that the cities face will be the absorption of the large population that will be migrating to the city. There has to be adequate building to accommodate the influx of new comers and there has to be overall development in areas like transport, education, health, food, water and mainly waste disposal (Castles, 2003; 12,24).

The main challenge that the city has to overcome will be that their voice has to be heard globally. Cities will be losing their unique historic value due to globalization. There has been an invasion of cultural values with certain areas crossing over to new culture. For example Easter culture like Dubai has been embracing Western culture lately with sales of colas increasing. Cities are getting more industrialized there by attracting global talent. That has led to a situation in which the people flocking towards cities in search of good job.

That has led to globalization of poverty also as majority of people live in cities with meager income. poor people has been facing increased pressure of less sanitation . That has led to severe health problems in the cities. The streams and other water supply has been getting polluted daily. The migrant people will be facing problems to get access to good health system due to problems in language. Spreading of infectious disease has been on the rise due to migration and there has been alerts against spreading of dangerous viral fevers.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS and H1N1 has been the recent examples for spread of disease. There has been strains on urban infrastructure due to explosion of migrants to cities. There has been pressure on cities to improve their public services so people will be given an option of environment friendly travel option. There has to be increased local taxation to find the financial resources for this and cities like New York has been enjoying much needed financial independence for this. There has to be efforts to accommodate the busting traffic problems in global cities.

Population density and urban centric people has led to more problems in city. That has also led to the increased land prices, and housing situation that has been deteriorating day by day . The quality of air and water has been deteriorating in global cities. The increase of carbon emission has been leading to increased problems like ozone depletion. There will be more energy consumption in the cities leading to depletion of natural resources. There has been only limited migration opportunities in some countries for females and they have resorted to illegal methods of migration.

That had increased the role of migrant smugglers and traffickers and there has been more cases of women migrant abusing. Social disintegration and unrest has been increasing among the nationals in global cities and there has been instances of racial attacks against the minorities. There has been increased pressure among ethnic groups, races and classes. The recent incidence of racial attacks has been the Australians attack on Indians in Australia. There has been increased threat of organized crime due to global migration. This has been happening because of illegal migrants and they are having links with terror outfits leading to more trouble.

Criminal global migrants has been taking advantage of the visit visa system to certain countries and doing crimes in cities and going back to their point of origin. That has made the life of cities less secure. Drug trafficking has been also increasing. Money laundering has been on the rise along with gambling and other illegal activities like prostitution (Bertell, & Hollifeld 2000). Money laundering has been effecting global economics. Important sports events like Olympics has been attracting migrants for short times and that will includes sex workers leading to increase in organized crime.

There has been increased disparity in the income and wealth generation inside a city that has led to increased tension in the cities. Migrants having a problem in speaking the language of the city will be having problem in getting a good job and the pressure of living in the city will be leading to more organized crimes. Conclusion Globalization will be leading to more international migration. There has been changes as migration with earlier form of migration being forced. The contemporary form of migration has led to increased pressure on cities .

There has been climatic problems, health problems smuggling issues, drug issues ,clean water issues and clean air issues ,that has been associated with international global migration. The other associated problems that has been identified has been the human trafficking and terror links. There has been increase in feminist international migration and that had been happening because of increased employment opportunities. Money laundering has been effecting the economics of countries. List Of References Bertell, Caroline & Hollifeld . (2000) Migration Theory.

New York : Routledge. Castles, S (2003) Towards a Sociology of Forced Migration and Social Transformation. Sociology 37,(1): 1-34 Mcewan, j. Pollard & Henry n. (2005) The “global” in the city economy. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29,(4) 916-933 Sassen, Sasskia (2001) New Transnational Spaces: International Migration and Transnational Companies in the Early Twenty-First Century. London: Routledge. Sheppard, E. (2002) The spaces and times of globalization. Place, scale, networks and positionality. Economic Geography 78,(3) 307-30

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